This reflection was offered at the Christ Church Eureka Centering Prayer group on Holy Monday, April 3, 2023
Today is Holy Monday and it is also the feast day of St. Richard of Chichester, a 13th century missionary bishop who served poor fishermen and farmers throughout England and who died 770 years ago today, on April 3, 1253. He is best known for praying to see God more clearly, to love God more dearly, and to follow God more nearly, words that were popularized by the hymn “Day by Day” which is Hymn 654 in our hymnal. Richard’s words were made even more popular by the song “Day by Day” from the musical Godspell, which was written by a young Episcopalian named John-Michael Tebelak. He died at the age of 35 due to an oversized heart and if he were included in our calendar of commemorations, his feast day would have been yesterday, since he died on April 2 (1985), which was Palm Sunday this year. While working on a thesis about Greek and Roman mythology as a student at Carnegie Mellon, he discovered in the Gospels the most joyful and passionate love story of all time and began to understand Holy Week as an invitation for us to enter more fully with our heart, mind, and body into this most passionate love story. Unfortunately, when he attended an Easter Vigil service at Trinity Episcopal cathedral in Pittsburgh, he was not welcomed mostly due to his trademark suspenders and hippie clothing. He was even frisked for drugs. He said, “Instead of rolling the stone away from the tomb, the church seemed to be piling more stones on.”
So, as we experience Holy Week and eventually the Great Easter Vigil on Saturday night, I invite us to ask ourselves what it looks like for us to roll the stone away this week (rather than pile more on), so that we may enter more fully into the most passionate love story of all time. On this Holy Monday, I can’t imagine a better way for us to start “rolling the stones away” than by practicing Centering Prayer together, by letting go of the many thoughts and anxieties that keep piling on, and by returning continually to the Source of Love, the One whom we strive to see more clearly, to love more dearly, and to follow more nearly, day by day, moment by moment, breath by breath.
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 